The Los Angeles City Council on Thursday gave its unanimous blessing to a proposal to use federal grants and loan guarantees for a pioneering community development bank aimed at bringing in new jobs and boosting the economies of the city's poorest neighborhoods. In signing off on the application to be submitted today to the U.S.

Say you run an industrial metal-treating company that employs 120 people. You want to expand your operations in one of Los Angeles' poorest neighborhoods. But you need to borrow $2 million for the plant and equipment, and the project doesn't pencil out if you have to pay the going interest rates.

The Los Angeles City Council took steps Tuesday aimed at pressuring banks to invest in low-income, minority areas if they want to do business with the city. The so-called linked banking law essentially requires city officials to select banks for municipal contracts based on financial institutions' records of lending and service to the city's poor neighborhoods.

Now that a merger agreement between Wells Fargo and First Interstate has finally been hammered out, community groups vow to hold Wells to its 10-year, $45-billion promise to boost consumer, housing and small-business lending in neglected and minority neighborhoods. The Greenlining Institute, which helped negotiate the commitment from Wells Fargo Chairman Paul Hazen, said it will meet quarterly with Wells managers to audit and review the bank's progress in fulfilling its commitments.

Free municipal services used to mean checking out a library book. But in Anaheim these days, some residents can borrow an electric car. All it takes is a valid license and a decent driving record. The cars are part of a $300,000 state pilot program to cut pollution and introduce the zippy, gas-free vehicles into neighborhoods. Although San Jose, Palm Springs and Sebastopol also received grants, Anaheim's program has a unique twist.

Banks are eight times as likely to make loans to small businesses in wealthy neighborhoods as in poor ones, according to a study released Tuesday by an activist group. Banking industry representatives disputed the conclusions reached by the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, insisting that banks are evenhanded in lending to small businesses in different areas.

A top aide to Mayor Richard Riordan told a panel of religious and civic leaders Thursday that the San Fernando Valley's proposal to break away from Los Angeles would hurt all residents, but especially the poor. Addressing a committee named by Cardinal Roger Mahony to investigate the ethical and moral implications of secession, Deputy Mayor Bill Violante said in the closed-door hearing that breaking up Los Angeles would not benefit anyone.

In its first direct legislative response to the nation's burgeoning energy crisis, the House on Wednesday approved legislation that would provide an additional $300 million to help low-income families pay their power bills. The bill amounts to a midyear increase of 21% for the $1.4-billion energy assistance program--twice as much as President Bush had proposed adding to help the poor cope with increases in utility bills.

A groundbreaking community development bank designed to pump jobs and money into Los Angeles' poorest areas cleared its last major hurdle Wednesday when the City Council approved the complex agreement governing the public-private enterprise.